Well Sidney Furie was gonna use Curtis Petersen as he has been in most his films for the last 20 years. Dolph chose Maxime Alexandre (who's Belgian and not French by the way), but I'm not sure if it's because he saw his work in HIGH TENSION or his reel based on a choise of DP's presented to him, especially since Alexandre was getting quite acustomed to shooting in Romania since Alexandre Arcady's ENTRE CHIENS ET LOUPS (Break of Dawn) and HIGH TENSION (and will do a few more movies over there after THE DEFENDER as well)...

I think his work was fantastic, on par with Ross Clarkson's on THE MECHANIK. Certainly made the film look at least twice as big.

Jerry Springer was the interim host on a satellite radio show last week. I called in, was able to get through, and asked Jerry about his experiences working on THE DEFENDER, particularly working with D... Here's the show. Scroll to roughly the 1:06:30 mark where we have our DEFENDER conversation...

I dig this film so much because unlike some of the other Romanian productions that I've seen, it looks so professional in every area (acting, style, edits, B-roll, fights, music, camera, etc.) and Dolph was clearly invested in telling an unusual hybrid of politics, thrills and espionage, all without being simplified, convoluted or just way too much to take in all at one time.

Nowadays, while this already has been compared to the likes of Assault on Precinct 13, Die Hard, Air Force One and even Dolph's own The Peacekeeper, this definitely will sit well with the kind of Action crowds who eat up Olympus Has Fallen, Bourne Identity, Taken or even TV shows such as 24 and MI-5/Spooks. It's a worthwhile flick and one of many times where I have to tell people to check it out despite them finding it bizarre that it went DTV or has Jerry Springer acting in it. So hard to convince people to take a chance once in awhile.

"No, I haven't seen any of [the new 'Punisher' movies]," - Dolph in 2009 MTV News Interview

The special effects were done by SFX legend Bob Keen, whose credits include the HELLRAISER and WAXWORK films, HIGHLANDER, NIGHTBREED, CANDYMAN, most of Anthony Hickox's movies including the dead mutilated bodies for Hickox's JILL RIPS and more...